Here’s what CFO Joe Zubretsky – who some have said is “no fan of workers’ comp) said…

“The second point I would make — so there is specialty revenue. The second point I would make is, and we didn’t count this as well, but I’m quite excited about it, because it’s been a vision of ours for many, many years, to unlock the value of workforce optimization by combining the skills of long-term disability, health care, and workers compensation. And when you think about it, all of those three lines of business and coverages intersect with the healthcare system, and somebody is not at their desk every day.

They have the best and largest workers compensation platform in the industry. We have dabbled in that industry over the years, but we’ve never been able to unlock its secret of profitable growth. So now that we have a fantastic long-term disability platform, what we think is the industry-leading healthcare platform, and now with the world’s or the US’s largest worker’s compensation platform, we believe we will be able to embark upon a strategy of workforce optimization, presenteeism that has not been seen before. But that’s probably out a ways and may be a futuristic view, but we think there is value there.”

Joe, you shouldn’t put stock in to what they say you should put stock in what they do and more critically what your instincts tell you based on insight and knowledge. Every stock analyst, of which I was one before I got into this business, is taught this from early on in their career. Zubretsky probably believes what he’s saying but he’s a CFO and not a product guy. They have no workers comp product guys there and hence the reason they decided to get out of the business not once but twice. Wouldn’t read much into what he’s saying.
David